ESPN First Take: LeBron Better Than Michael?

I find it disgusting that they are even debating this and I hate MJ...

Texas Lakers Fan wrote:

Ring It Up wrote:No. He does have a chance to be if he can maintain, maybe even raise, his level of play and stay healthy.

No he doesn't. Stop it. LeBron will NEVER even come close to MJ or Kobe's level of greatness.

You seem pretty confident in that statement. I have learned never to say never. And what are you basing your opinion on?

dj vitus wrote:

Ring It Up wrote:No. He does have a chance to be if he can maintain, maybe even raise, his level of play and stay healthy.

He's gonna have to "ring it up" not 1, not 2, not 3... but quite a few more times.

I would agree that he needs a few more titles. That's why I said if he can maintain or possibly increase his level of play. Although the structure of a player's team has a lot more to do with winning titles than their greatness or level of play. I am sure Kobe and MJ would testify to that.

LeBron is in his prime right now. He's not going to get better. And the Lakers are going to be really tough the next few years. If he doesn't win for two or more years, will the Heat have it in them to win a few more when Wade is beaten up by a few more finals? It looks unlikely that LeBron will win more than a couple IMO.

I feel one more thing needs to be mentioned, lockout shortened season. A championship is a championship I know, but to bring up the question of LeBron being better than MJ when he's won one championship, and that one championship didn't even come in a regular 82 game season, come on, ridiculous.

Weezy wrote:I feel one more thing needs to be mentioned, lockout shortened season. A championship is a championship I know, but to bring up the question of LeBron being better than MJ when he's won one championship, and that one championship didn't even come in a regular 82 game season, come on, ridiculous.

I agree that the comparisons are premature and even out of context. However, the 66 gm card is horrific. Everyone had the same amount of time to prepare and the 82 game season is not nearly as taxing because no one plays 3 gms in 3 days.

Knowledge1776 wrote:

Weezy wrote:I feel one more thing needs to be mentioned, lockout shortened season. A championship is a championship I know, but to bring up the question of LeBron being better than MJ when he's won one championship, and that one championship didn't even come in a regular 82 game season, come on, ridiculous.

I agree that the comparisons are premature and even out of context. However, the 66 gm card is horrific. Everyone had the same amount of time to prepare and the 82 game season is not nearly as taxing because no one plays 3 gms in 3 days.

You are right everyone had time to prepare but a season like this played more into the hands of the young teams. I don't put an astrix on any Championship so the Heat won fair and square. However, I wouldn't be able to simply gloss over the fact that the season was built for the young guns. If the Heat can back it up next year with a regular season with all the teams on even playing field then I'll be more impressed. The MJ comparisons are just stupid at this point but what do we all expect from sports media?

I wonder why people forget that LBJ entered this league as an instant superstar whereas Kobe had to work really hard and long to achieve that.
Kobe has small hands, he's constantly injured, there always are players who are faster, stronger than him, shoot better, play better D, but somehow it is him who is mentioned in the same sentence with the greatest to have stepped on the court. He achieved greatness. Lebron got it on a plate.